The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who love him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Psalms 103:8-12
I especially like "he does not treat us as our sins deserve". Phew, right?! He loves us. He forgives us. He doesn't hold a grudge, and thankfully we don't get what we deserve. I like being reminded of that, and I think David said it beautifully. Our reading tonight, though, went on to verse 14, and that's the one that spoke to me tonight. Vs 14 says "for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust."
I feel like I constantly struggle to understand how my kids work. What motivates them to make the decisions they make? Why do they respond this way instead of that way? Why do they struggle with X and excel with Y? And because I don't always understand them, I'm sure I punish them for things I should instead be explaining, discussing, or maybe even ignoring. And I'm sure at those times, they are painfully aware that I don't understand them. Honestly, I don't always understand why I act or react the way I do. What I like about vs 14 is that it speaks directly to this. God knows how we are formed - He understands what makes us tick, what our thought processes are and what our intentions are. He understands that we are weak, fallen humans. He "gets" me, and He takes all that into consideration when He looks at me. It's nice to be understood...and accepted anyway.
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As most everyone knows, my Great-Aunt Mary passed away this morning. Danielle and I had planned to go see her this morning, but she was gone before we got there. Despite being sad for our loss, I am excited for her. By the time my mom called at 6:30 this morning, my aunt had already met Jesus FACE TO FACE!! All of Heaven, including her brother and sister and mom and dad, had already welcomed her home! How cool is that? Rather than sitting in her room at the nursing home today, she got to sit at the feet of God. As much as I would have liked to see her once more, I'm glad she didn't wait for us to get started on eternity.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Danielle and I visited my mom & stepdad instead today. We had a good visit. While I was there, I took these pictures of a squirrel on their deck. In case you're wondering, he's eating a dorito. Apparently they like nacho cheesey goodness, too. I used to think squirrels were kind of cute, until I got this close up picture of him. Personally, I think his face is a little c.jpg)
reepy.
5 comments:
Thanks for my morning devotion ;-)
Do you have a specific devotional book you use with Tyler and Danielle? I guess my kids are still kind of little, but Caleb is big enough to think through Bible verses some. We have the Jesus Storybook Bible and I like it a lot, but it isn't really reflective.
Also I really appreciate your words on understanding our kids. I feel like that a lot lately! Wondering why Caleb "does what he does" and why I have such a hard time seeing the line between where he needs to be corrected and needs to be a kid. I'm encouraged, thanks!
Tyler got a "real" Bible for Christmas (The Boys Bible (NIV), which I highly recommend). I wanted him to learn how to use it - how to actually look up verses - so I bought The One Year Book of Devotions for Boys for us to do together. Every night he looks up the Bible verse and reads it, I read the devotional from the book, and we both pray. The devotionals are not long, which is a plus, and his prayers are even shorter, but that's ok. He's learning how to use the Bible, what the Bible has to say about living, and how it applies to our lives.
Also, I can't explain how neat it is to listen to him read the scripture.
When Tyler was little, Ron's mom gave us an excellent devotional book for him. There is a Gotta Have God series for boys. It's broken down by age range and he started with the 2-5 age range. He loved it! There is a very small devotional and a simple activity that goes with it. It was perfect for his attention span, and we went through both books in that age range and the 6-9 age range. There is a series for girls that we use with Danielle. It's called God and Me! and has the same age ranges. I think your kids would love them! Wish I would have thought of those for Christmas gifts!
I just happened to be flipping through some blogs today and came across yours. I was only going to look down the pictures quickly, but read what you had written about your great aunt Mary. It touched my heart. I'm a christian and yesterday was the first anniv of my brothers passing - he was 57 yrs old. January and Feb hold many recent Anniv of my family passing - some are with Jesus and some I don't have the security in knowing for sure.
The words you wrote offer hope.
Thank you for taking a moment to share that with me. I'm so glad you were able to find a bit of encouragement. Knowing that God used her to encourage someone else would have made my aunt smile, too. Thank you.
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